


Prayer

by nathyfaith



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gabriel Monthly Challenge, Gen, Sam Prays, With A Twist, bringing my favorite archangel back, cas is fledgling archangel now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 08:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11963691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nathyfaith/pseuds/nathyfaith
Summary: Although Cas is dead, Sam finds comfort by praying and talking to him. He just didn’t know there were others listening to his prayers.Prompt:“All that bravado, all those witty comebacks… Just to hide how terrified you really are.”





	Prayer

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to the most patience beta-reader ever TheRiverScribe!

Sam sat tiredly on the edge of his bed, the weight of the last couple days seeping into his bones. His heart ached with the memories running behind his eyelashes. He sighed deeply, licking his cracked lips before settling his voice in a low tone. **  
**

“I’m not sure why I’m doing this, it’s silly. I know you are gone, Cas. I know that. I saw it. It just happens that I’m having a really hard time believing it.”

He ran a hand through his hair massaging his scalp as he talked, his voice thick with the force of unshed tears, “You know what else is unbelievable? Me, sitting here, praying out loud to a person who no longer can hear me?”

Sam snorted, “The fact is, Michael and Lucifer told me countless times, while I was locked up in the cage with them, that my prayers couldn’t and wouldn’t be heard. They never would be.”

He bit his lip strong enough to bruise, before continuing, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

“After all, who would care for a soul like mine? Broken, stained - a monster, a poor excuse for a vessel. I heard them whispering in Enochian, words I didn’t dare repeat out loud for you to hear.”

His voice trembled, “I’m terribly sorry, Cas. I should have trusted you more. Perhaps, if I had, everything wouldn’t be such a mess now.”

With the back of his hand, Sam wiped away the stray tear, hating himself for being so weak when others needed him to be strong.

“So, hmm, Dean insists mom is dead too. It must be easier for him to accept you are both gone and just roll with it than actually accept his feelings,” He blinks, fingernails digging into the palm of his hand, “he thinks I can’t hear him crying in his sleep. _Well_ , he is wrong.”

Sam ran his hands to his face, rubbed his eyes and rest his elbows lightly on his knees. He inhaled profoundly before hiding his face between his large hands.

His voice was muffled and mournful, “I bet you would give me one of those timid smiles of yours if I ever told you that you were the closest thing we ever had of stability. Once you came along you were never that far away. It seems unfair to think Chuck would finally let you go –”

He exhaled and inhaled again hoping that by calming the rhythm of his breath he would be able to calm his mind.

“Oh, have I mentioned Jack?”

_**Meanwhile, In the Void** _

If Gabriel had to guess, he was in what he liked to call a firmament void. A place where Dad sent all his unfinished ideas, creations, and disobedient archangel’s to spend some ‘quality time’.

Well, it sucked.  _Majorly._

He had to give it to Dad though, the last few years had been monotonous and bless the Winchesters for having such a nightmare of a life that he could at least ‘enjoy’ watching it on this poor excuse of a telly.

Truth was that Gabriel missed Earth as much as he missed candy. Watching the boys wasn’t what he would call a downtime or even leisure, it was painful. He was still the Archangel of Justice and who would he be, if not curious to discover what happened while he had been absent?

The fact that Sam had been able to defeat Lucifer shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Gabriel, but Sam, stubborn, strong, darling, Sam had taken him by surprise. Gabriel wanted to scream, how dare they touch him, how dare his siblings to attempt to break such an exquisite soul? Even with Azazel’s blood mixed up in his bloodstream Sam’s soul was pure.

Gabriel’s grace screamed. He wished so many things at once, overall he wished he had never told Sam how he sounded like a scared little child. His own voice echoed in his mind, “All that bravado, all those witty comebacks… Just to hide how terrified you really are.”

Of course, Sam had been scared. He was just a human. As the last couple of years and months passed in a flash in front of Gabriel’s eyes, his Father’s return, his Auntie’s freedom, his siblings at war once again, universes clashing,  Castiel’s death… The archangel sat, tears streaming down his face, grief taking place within his body.

Sam’s prayers were a quiet reminder that people kept going. It honestly baffled him that the youngest Winchester still prayed at all. True, they had been sporadic, and almost non-existent, but heartfelt and sweet. Suddenly Gabriel’s curiosity spoke louder and he glanced up concentrating on Sam entirely, “… about Jack already?”

What and who the ever living Dad was Jack?!

Gabriel tilted his head and snapped his fingers, rewinding the one-sided conversation, stopping when Sam bend down to his bed. The prayer sounding more like a confession than a conversation and Gabriel’s grace swirled once more.

He was about to yell at the universe when a tall figure appeared in front of him. Gabriel would recognize those blue eyes anywhere.

“Cassie?” He dared to ask, his true voice trembling like a thunder.

“Gabriel? Where am I? Why can I still hear Sam?” Castiel asked, furrowing his eyebrows and tilting his head.

Gabriel stood quietly in front of him.

“Where are they? What have you done to them, brother?” Cas inquired, his hands grabbing into Gabriel’s upper arms.

Gabriel didn’t answer. He simply enveloped Castiel in a bear hug, wings and all. “You’re really here, Cassie. I missed you so.”

It took a few seconds but the seraphim hugged his brother back, relishing in the warm contact of his grace. If felt so differently from the ice-cold embrace he’d received from Lucifer not so long ago.

“Am I dead?” he whispered in his mind.

“Not really. 'Suspended in time and space’ would be a better name for where you and I are now.” Gabriel explained, holding Castiel’s face between his hands, reading his brother’s grace, finding it changed on a molecule level.

Suddenly they heard a crash.  Sam had been pacing in the dark and accidentally knocked his feet on a chair.  Castiel and Gabriel exchanged glances when they heard the younger Winchester complain, “Damn it! Stupid fucking chair! Sorry Cas, I mean, where was I again…?”

“We have a broadcast of the Winchesters?” Castiel questioned squinting his eyes at the telly.

“Hold on–we’ll come back to Sam in a moment. Tell me what the hell happened. This energy you have now is different Cassie. What have you done this time? You are almost as strong as a young archangel fledgling and that’s saying something.”

Ignoring his brother completely Castiel stood in front of the telly. “He doesn’t look well, Gabriel. Sam was much better the last time I saw him. Take a look at him. He seems, ill.”

“Castiel.” Gabriel spoke in a stern tone.

“I might have gained energy from a Nephilim, but it in my defense I was merely trying to help. Sam says I often try to help and end up making things worse….”

“I might have to agree with him on that front.  A Nephilim?”

“Ah, listen, Sam is talking about him.”

Sam’s voice carried on, “Jack is staying with us for now. Not that Dean enjoys it – any of it. But I guess anything involving Lucifer, demon blood and Nephilim’s is a big ‘no, no’ in his book. Believe me, I would know. Which, may I add it’s ridiculous because I wasn’t the one who sold my soul to save his life in the first place. I might have tried, and then the Cage and I lost my soul, which I assume wasn’t completely your fault. Cas, the thing is, I know you have to be somewhere. Chuck, I mean your Dad has to have a place for you and the other archangels…”

Sam took a deep breath shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts, “You know, according to some of my research, Jack wouldn’t be the first Nephilim. Gabriel did have children as Loki, which I assumed are half archangels. Jack told me that checking on them could be a good idea.” Sam laughed without humor. “Imagine how that would go–a powerful Goddess, a giant wolf, and the world’s serpent. Yeah, I bet they would kill us before we managed to say ‘trickster’.”

“They really wouldn’t, kiddo. They would adore you in the blink of an eye.” Gabriel commented, mindlessly.

Sam yawned, allowing his body to fall into the mattress, “Sorry Cas, I haven’t been sleeping well. My mind has a way of cooking up the strangest scenarios.”

“Poor kid.” Gabriel lamented.

“True, I made many mistakes with Samuel,” Chuck affirmed appearing in a flash of light.

“Father?” Castiel called, at the same time Gabriel exclaimed, “Pops?”

“Mary!” Castiel relief voice came up.

“Cas, it’s really you! Finally,” Mary mumbled as she hugged one of her sons.

Gabriel and Castiel cast a glance at their father, “I might have jumped a little between universes before I recalled I had made a special place for the two of you.”

“Can we please go home? I’m worried about my boys.” Mary urged.

“Yes, yes, we can. Castiel, Gabriel, hold onto Mary, this will be quick.”

A flash of blinding light took the entire room and as Cas, Gabriel, and Mary opened their eyes again they could hear a muffled conversation and the smell of burnt pancakes. Sam half asleep, his hair going all directions passed through them in a hurry, his feet carrying him to the kitchen.

His brother’s hoarse voice came first, “That’s it, you are banned forever from my kitchen! Get moving!

“B-but, I was trying to help…” Jack answered, pouting slightly.

“Quit that! You’re just as bad as Sammy.”

Jack frowned and decided to approach the elephant in the room, “I understand you may see me as a monster, Dean Winchester, but I must disagree when you put your brother in the same spectrum.”

Dean arched an eyebrow and tilted his head, blinking a couple of times. “I-I admit I struggle with the idea of Sammy and his powers, that I have been afraid of you and that I did call my brother by names before. But listen to me and listen to me clearly you little shit, he is my brother and I love him, come heaven or hell. Which means somehow you got yourself the same treatment because he cares for you and so did Cas.

“You love me too?” Jack asked in a completely innocent way.

Dean shook his head fondly, changing the subject, “And besides I was talking about you pouting at me.”

“Ahhh. I see,” he pouted again, hoping for another reaction of the older Winchester.

Sam stood in the door, a bit stunned by his brother’s admission but curious all the same.

“Don’t push it.” Dean laughed, nudging Jack with his elbow.

“What happened here?” Sam asked exasperatedly.

“In my defense, I was merely attempting our breakfast,” Jack informed as Dean threw the burnt pancakes on the garbage.

“Clearly he sucks as much as Mom did on the cooking front.” Dean joked sadly.

“You know, we do have cereal,” Sam mumbled within a yawn.

“Honestly Sammy, we have food. Just give me–” Dean started, bending while searching inside the fridge.

“I could always snap your breakfast,” Gabriel chimed in.

“Thanks, Gabriel, we’re just–” Sam stopped mid-sentence, Dean stood, his body language screaming run, his hand practically glued to the fridge door.

Dean closed the door and fulminated Jack with his eyes, “I thought we had spoken about you doing holograms inside the house–”

“We did,” Sam added, “But he never met Gabriel…”

Dean turned, ignoring Gabriel completely and landing his eyes on Sam’s, “Sam, come on! You’re smarter than that! What about genetic memory that goes from parents bloodstream and such?! I mean, he is a Nephilim, for Chuck’s sake!”

Sam stood and walked towards Gabriel, alarmed Dean asked, “Sam, what are you doing?”

“If he is a hologram, all we have to do is touch.” Sam stood with his hand in the air, almost afraid to touch.

“And you wondered why I like him better, Pops?” Gabriel questioned via angel radio, taking a small step so Sam’s hand could touch him without the boy moving any closer.

“How?” Dean whispers bewildered.

“I gave them a ride,” Chuck answered, Mary and Castiel walking behind him.

“Cas! Mom!” Sam called, moving from Gabriel and hugging his best friend without a second thought.

“Hey Sam,”  Castiel mumbled in his embrace.

“Luckily someone in this family still prays.” Gabriel chatted as he snapped his fingers making appear pancakes, orange juice, toasts, cookies, cake and some other unessential things at the table.

Dean was so shocked that he didn’t move until he felt his mother’s arms enveloping him in a hug.

“Oh honey, I have been so worried,” Mary told him, as she kissed his cheek. It took Dean a moment before he hugged his mother back, tears falling silently from his eyes.

“I have to go now, but I’m just gonna say this once–” Chuck informed them, gently touching Gabriel’s shoulder and then Sam’s, smiling kindly to his grandson, he continued, “this is a gift.”

“You keep those.” Castiel finished his father’s line, a huge smile on his face.

Chuck vanished in a flash of light, winking at them fondly.


End file.
